On Illegal Immigration, “Civil Rights” Groups Want It Both Ways

Civil rights groups are considering a lawsuit to try to block the federal government from requiring all police agencies to screen people booked into local jails for immigration violations.

The Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced that local police agencies could not opt out of a program known as Secure Communities, which started in 2008, is now active in 1,300 local jurisdictions and is scheduled to be in place nationwide by 2013.

That’s not actually put in the best way: in fact, DHS determined that there was no need for voluntary participation by the states, counties, and cities, and cancelled all the memoranda of understanding that implemented Secure Communities, and stated that compliance with the Secure Communities program is mandatory for all states and localities.

On Monday, civil rights groups said they were reviewing the decision to see why states such as Illinois and New York– where governors recently sent letters to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requesting to get out of the program – are now being told that they have no choice.

“ICE and the federal government don’t get to rule by decree,” said B. Loewe, a spokesman for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network. He said his group is considering a lawsuit to try to block the program.

“Three years after introducing Secure Communities, DHS changed the rules of the game by setting aside all the agreements that states negotiated in good faith,” said Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, in a statement. The ICE announcement “is the latest in a long line of deceptive DHS theatrics and is an insult to governors and state leaders who signed these agreements, which now amount to nothing more than the paper they’re printed on. DHS has recklessly inflicted S-Comm on states and localities across the country without any legal justification for the program.”

But, wait, wasn’t the ACLU, along with other “civil rights” groups, complaining about States taking on immigration policies themselves, instead of following what Los Federales told them to do? They’ve sued Arizona, Georgia, and Alabama. So, they want it both ways.

You do have to wonder what their rationale is

For decades, police agencies have sent the fingerprints of people booked into their jails to the FBI to check for criminal records. Under Secure Communities, those fingerprints are also shared with the Department of Homeland Security to check for immigration violations.

So, if you get booked for peeing in public, your fingerprints could be sent to the FBI. Yet, the ACLU seems to have no problem with this, but, send fingerprints sent to DHS to see if you are an illegal with a prior record? They become apoplectic.